Tsar Alexander II and Mussolini (or Giolitti)

[John Dunn]

In an interview published recently in Novaia gazeta a learned former judge of Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation made the following observation (http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/58532.html):

Александра II спросили: «Как управлять Россией?» И он ответил просто совершенно замечательно: «Я считаю, это делать очень легко, но совершенно бесполезно».

What I find striking about this quotation is its remarkable similarity to a famous Italian aphorism, variously attributed to Giovanni Giolitti and to Benito Mussolini:

Governare gli italiani non è difficile*, è inutile.       *Sometimes: impossibile

A quick search on Google produces several references to Alexander II, usually giving the aphorism in a form even closer to the customary Italian version:

Россией управлять несложно, но совершенно бесполезно.

Unfortunately none of the references that I have checked so far burdens itself with such trivial details as a time and place when this statement is supposed to have been uttered.   There are numerous people on this list who have a better knowledge of the life and times of Alexander II than I do, and my question is: does anyone have any evidence that the Tsar actually uttered the words attributed to him?  And, given the quite possibly apocryphal nature of the Italian version, does anyone know of any other ruler who may have expressed himself or herself in similar vein on the pointlessness of governing their subjects?

John Dunn. 

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